Israeli justice minister Tommy Lapid shocks cabinet by comparing Gaza offensive to his family's woes in World War II.

Gaza political storm hits Israel

Lapid's Shinui party is the prime minister's main coalition partner
The Israeli justice minister has infuriated cabinet colleagues by saying the army offensive in Gaza reminded him of his family's woes in World War II.
Yosef Lapid said a TV picture of an elderly Palestinian woman in the rubble reminded him of his grandmother.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reprimanded Mr Lapid, who denied he was drawing comparisons with the Holocaust.

Mr Sharon said he would put his new plan for a staged withdrawal from Gaza before the cabinet this month.

"I intend to present my disengagement plan to the cabinet in a week and get it approved," Mr Sharon said.

More demolitions?

Israeli troops have demolished dozens of homes in the Rafah refugee camp.

In an interview with Israel Defence Forces radio, Mr Lapid revealed that the army was considering demolishing another 2,000 homes in Rafah to widen the so-called Philadelphi road on the border with Egypt.

The UN estimates at least 1,600 people have lost their homes
Referring to the TV picture, Mr Lapid said he was "talking about an old woman crouching on all fours, searching for her medicines in the ruins of her house and that she made me think of my grandmother".

"I said that if we carry on like this, we will be expelled from the United Nations and those responsible will stand trial at The Hague," Mr Lapid told Israel radio, describing his argument in cabinet.

Mr Lapid, leader of the centrist Shinui party, spent part of World War II in a Budapest ghetto and lost many members of his family in the Holocaust, including a grandmother who died at Auschwitz.

He stressed that in his comment on the Rafah offensive, he was "not talking about Germany or the Nazis".

Trail of debris
In pictures: Gaza withdrawal
Rafah children on frontline

Israeli political sources quoted by Reuters said Prime Minister Sharon scolded Mr Lapid at the cabinet meeting, denouncing his remarks as "unacceptable and intolerable".